Jan 11, 2010

OK, ok, let's get this out of the way before we start. I know these look very inuendoish. Let's have no more mention of that!

First off, gotta give credit where credit is due. The idea for this larking around came from a post from a while back by Zakka Life, showing how they made lightsabres for her son's birthday party out of toilet roll tubes and modelling balloons. Absolutely fab idea! I've been holding off on trying this with the kids until the nights were drawn in and the weather was icky, so that we could experiment with using LED flashlights with it and maybe do a spot of Jedi light painting.
The modelling balloons that I had were kinda skinny little ones, so I had to tape them into the loo roll tubes to work. Also, the flashlights that we had were those little flat LED ones, like this...

So I cut each toilet roll tube in half, so the length of the tube was shorter and you got a brighter result. You wouldn't have to do that if you had a regular shaped torch/flashlight though.We've done this three times in the last week with three different groups of friends ranging in age from 2 to eight years old, and they all absolutely loved it! No one is going to get hurt fighting with balloons, and the photos that came from a long exposure with the lights off are too much fun entirely. It looks like we have aurora borealis in our livingroom!

It's impressive to note just how much leaping around was actually going on, because the longest exposure photo in this lot was eight seconds!

I made a couple of giant lightbulbs too, that the kids rather liked as nightlights.

For the cost of a packet of modelling balloons, this has provided a hunormously mahoosive amount of indoor entertainment. We'll be doing plenty more of it while we wait out the heavy rain that the next month or so usually brings.

I think I love the giant lightbulbs just a little bit more than I love the lightsabres. I think because they are round. I have to do this with the kids. They had so much fun over Halloween with those $1 cylume sticks - this is so much cooler! Thank you again for the brilliant idea!

These look so neat, I know the kids will LOVE doing this. Almost as much as they love making lego cars (with paper, as per your earlier blog), but probably not quite as much as my youngest will like his batman cape once I'm done.

Super cool idea. I was looking through the Family Fun magazine today and noticed that they had a whole page dedicated to the hot dog/spaghetti thing you did with your kids last year. Just thought you'd like to know :)

Hiya kiddycrafting peeps. It's really good to hear that lots of you are going to give this one a whirl! It was a good activity for minimal input and maximum entertainment that's for sure.

JHill, the balloons we used that I refer to as modelling balloons are just the ones that you can get to make balloon animals with. The really long skinny ones. The giant lightbulbs at the end were little water balloons.

I got my modelling balloons as a gift from my mum in the UK, but I just restocked and got more from Target party favour aisle and they were something like $1.30 for 25 of them.

Please, please come and let us know if you try this out. I would love to see other people's lightsabre battle photos too! The kids were amazed that they had created the patterns in those photos.

Hi! I make a good part of my living making balloon "art" for children and Adults alike! (I am in the states) I LOVE your idea! I plan to steal lit...or use it as a part of my ongoing "research" for fun and impressive stuff! WOW! I am AMAZED! In my "kit" I have 4 or 5 THOUSAND balloons of various sizes, shapes and colors. Tell anyone who asks that Sempertex or Pioneer make the BEST colors and virtually ANY color you wish!

If anyone needs assistance on creating shapes from Balloons, let me know and I will do what I can. IF possible, I will make a couple of my sculptures and light them using your idea! Let's see what happens!

Just letting you know that we made some balloon and torch lightsabers, and I posted about it. Link is here:http://nurturingthetenderyears.blogspot.com/2010/01/amazing-fun-balloon-and-torch.htmlMy boys had an immense amount of fun. Thank you for the great ideas, as always!

i am lost for words. just simply, that you are indeed a credit to your teaching profession as well as a fantastic mother! i believe you are teaching and nurturing a whole new generation of children(and some adults) to become creative and explore their minds as well as surroundings. if you had been my teacher," i coulda been somebady, i coulda been a contenter" once again great job!!!!!

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Fangletronics

The man that I am affiliated with also has a blog. He loves to make stuff with and for our kids as well. His domain is more in the realms of electronics, but he makes other stuff too. Check out his electronic fangling over at Fangletronics.